170 attend RCI event: ‘where next for Bangladesh?’

On Sunday 18 August, 13 days after Bangladesh’s dictator Sheikh Hasina fell, the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) held an online discussion to celebrate this victory and to offer a communist perspective and programme. The first phase of the revolution is over. Now it is necessary to complete the revolution! We include the recording of that discussion here.

The excellent attendance – over 170 people joined from all over the globe – reflected the thirst for a clear direction amidst these tumultuous events. Whilst many joined from Bangladesh, many others joined from the Bangladeshi diaspora in Britain, the US, Australia and elsewhere.

There were also many revolutionary communists in attendance, members and followers of the RCI’s sections across the globe, who wanted to hear the communist perspective on these momentous events. This included comrades from Pakistan and India, to the US, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and many, many other countries.

You can watch back the discussion here:

Chairing and opening the discussion was Fiona Lali of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Britain, who has become well known in the recent period in Bangladesh, for the unflagging solidarity that she and the RCP have given to the revolutionary masses throughout this process.

Fiona paid tribute to the sacrifice of the students who sparked and led this movement, leading to this important victory. She explained how the revolutionary upsurge transpired, and how it morphed from a fight against the rotten quota system to a revolutionary struggle to bring down Hasina after brutal violence was unleashed against the masses.

She also explained how the comrades of the RCI performed our internationalist duty to step up our solidarity efforts, joining protests of the diaspora in London, in New York and elsewhere.

Fiona finished by asking, what next? Since Hasina has fallen, we’ve seen her replacement with a new ‘interim government’ headed by Dr. Yunus. But this is a capitalist government, and its interests are not compatible with those of the workers and mass of students. As she explained:

“The point now is this: these student leaders have led this revolution on the grounds of democracy, but we have to ask, what is democracy, real democracy? Well, we have just seen this. A revolution is when the masses are intervening in their own story, in their own history, and actively, consciously taking control over it. So for this democracy to become real and more than just a flashpoint, what we are saying is that this revolution must continue. Our message from the start stays the same, which is that we call on the students and workers in Bangladesh to trust in themselves and themselves alone.”

Fiona was followed by Ben Curry, a leading member of the Revolutionary Communist International and editor of marxist.com. Ben looked at three questions: Firstly, how were these tremendous victories won? What are the lessons of the revolution so far? And where will things head next?

Ben explained that 5 August was a turning point because this was when it became a truly popular revolution, spreading beyond the students to encompass broad layers, including factory workers, informal workers and peasants.

The democratic gains, he explained, were “won on the streets by the students and the masses and paid for with blood. Dr. Yunus and his ministers did not play any role in this! They cannot claim responsibility for a single one of these democratic gains. They have been taken by the people themselves!”

But the old capitalist state, riddled with Awami League officials, remains, only now with Yunus at its head. In this, there is a certain analogy with the first stages of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

In February, the Tsar was forced out, but the old Tsarist state remained, only with a democratic lick of paint. To complete the revolution, it was necessary for the workers to seize power, which they were able to do in October 1917, only because they had the clear-sighted revolutionary leadership of the Bolshevik Party. Bangladesh has had its February. Now the task is to complete a Bangladeshi October, for which a party on the model of the Bolshevik Party is required.

After Ben spoke, we were proud to be joined on the panel by two important communist student activists in Bangladesh, including Abdullah Hel Bubun from Dhaka University.

Bubun explained the challenges that the revolutionary left faces on campuses in Bangladesh. This challenge is caused by the fact that many so-called ‘left’ parties have, over years, disgracefully supported the Awami League regime as a secular ‘lesser evil’ to the other right-wing and Islamist parties.

These left parties from the Stalinist tradition have effectively said, “first we must unite all ‘progressive’ forces to fight communalism, then we can fight for socialism at some indeterminate point down the road.”

We, as genuine communists, have nothing in common with this approach. Nonetheless, as Bubun explained, despite difficulties inherited from Stalinism, left-wing students also mobilised in this movement.

Bubun warned that those right-wing parties that were in opposition to Hasina, like the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, are now painting themselves as a legitimate part of the revolution. Whilst there is little support for them among the students, they have the advantage over the discredited left that they are well-organised and well-funded.

Right-wing elements are insidiously trying to divert the revolution away from a class struggle towards communal, anti-Hindu sentiment, using the anger that exists at the role of the Modi regime in propping up Hasina.

In order to cut across these dangers, the left must fight for the leadership of this movement. But, as Bubun explained, what is needed is a complete break with the culture war ideas that have dominated until present, of ‘secularism’ versus ‘Islamism’, which has consistently benefited the ruling class. What is needed is an openly revolutionary, class-struggle approach.

Next, Adam Pal, leader of the Inqalabi Communist Party in Pakistan, spoke, bringing solidarity greetings from revolutionary communists in Pakistan. He explained how the ruling class of Pakistan, which has had very cordial relations with the ruling class of Bangladesh, is trembling as a result of this movement.

The working class, on the contrary, is inspired by the incredible non-cooperation movement and general strike and the bravery of the masses.

Adam condemned the role of Indian imperialism in Bangladesh, and still they shelter Hasina to this day. However, he was careful to differentiate between the ruling class of India and the attitude of the workers. In fact, starting in West Bengal, just over the border, a mass movement has erupted across India after the rape and murder of a young female doctor. The Indian masses too are inspired by the mass movement in Bangladesh.

Adam analysed the role of the different actors: the right-wing opposition parties, the bankruptcy of the Stalinist parties, and the different foreign interests that are trying to intervene. Fundamentally, he explained, the masses can only hope for solidarity from the working masses of the world.

“The workers in Bangladesh, the peasants and Bangladesh are yearning for a revolution,” Adam explained, “what is the way forward? The first step must be to found a party to break with capitalism.”

Finally, Ben Curry concluded the meeting. He explained that what is going on in Bangladesh, like the events we saw in Sri Lanka two years ago, and in Kenya and Nigeria this summer, are all symptoms of the fact that capitalism is dying. But the working masses cannot seize power into their own hands and make a decisive breakthrough without a party.

Making an analogy with the Arab Spring of 14 years ago, Ben explained that this was the lesson of that revolution; it was the lesson of Sri Lanka two years ago. The vanguard of the workers and the most revolutionary students must learn this lesson in Bangladesh today. It is towards the building of revolutionary communist parties around the world that can lead a successful revolution that the RCI dedicates itself, and the meeting ended with a final appeal to all listeners to join us in that task.